New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) Monday imposed Rs 5 lakh penalty on the Union and the state governments, including Odisha, for not filing affidavits with details of steps being taken to ensure food security and community kitchens for poor and homeless.
A three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice NV Ramana ruled that the penalty would be reduced to Rs 1 lakh if states file affidavits within 24 hours. However, those who fail to submit affidavit by the stipulated period will have to pay Rs 5 lakh.
The bench observed that it’s unfortunate that the Centre and states have not filed their responses to the court order.
Five states – Karnataka, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Nagaland – and two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have filed affidavits in the SC. However, the Union government has not filed the affidavit.
The bench posted the matter for hearing to February 17.
It is to be mentioned here that the SC had issued notices to the Union government and states seeking their responses to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to formulate a scheme for community kitchens to combat hunger and malnutrition. The apex court had favoured setting up of community kitchens, observing that the country needs such kind of system to tackle the issue of hunger.